Category Archives: Business

Keyless Killer?

My Dad brought to my attention a news story that people are dying because of keyless cars. It was from a New York Times article describing how people are leaving their cars running in their garages because the no longer need to turn a physical key to the off position.
As we all know, the Times is the queen of “fake news“, hence I needed to look at the numbers.

The story describes how “dozens” of people have been killed by the deadly assault keyless cars. The total number killed according to the story was 28 which is  4 more than TWO dozen, so it is technically “dozens“. That’s tabloid journalism for you, to make a click-bait headline.  Once again we need to delve deeper into the numbers.

Just as an aside, VEHICLES OF WAR don’t need KEYS to operate.  You can start almost all WAR MACHINES, tanks, humvees, MRAPs, personnel carriers, WITHOUT A KEY.  As a deadly keyless operation assault car, you can turn on and off a VEHICLE OF WAR without turning a physical KEY.  But I digress…

The “dozens” of people killed is over an 12 YEAR period. That makes the “death toll” a bit more than TWO per year. Not exactly headline news. “Stop the presses!  Breaking news!  Last year, two people were killed by because they forgot to turn off their car!  Oh the humanity!”   But let’s delve deeper.

The article says that 8.5 million cars sold annually have keyless operations. Over 12 years that would be more than 100 million assault cars with deadly keyless operations. For a back of the envelope analysis, let’s assume only half of those cars are running today (50 million cars), because some of the cars will have been crashed or have become inoperable.

Say that you park your car in the garage once per day. You need to drive to work, the store, school, whatever and return to the garage. That means with 50 million cars, the cars get parked AT LEAST 5 times per week.  With the 52 weeks in a  year, that gives us 13 BILLIONS opportunities to NOT shut off the car, per year. Over 12 years that would be 156 BILLION opportunities to leave a car running in the garage.

With 28 deaths and 156 BILLION parking cycles, the death rate is 0.000000018% !!!   For the betting folks, that’s ONE IN 5.6 BILLION.

Putting it into perspective, you are 300 times more likely to be hit and killed by a METEORITE.

BUT there is a potentially more sinister latent hazard that isn’t described by the queen of fake news. I’ll cover that in the next entry.

In More Than 45 Years I’ve Never Had A Job!

I’m not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV

After the election of President Trump in 2016 there are many legal nuances that I had no idea existed. This according to experts from the Director of the FBI, The Department of Justice, and “real” lawyers (bah humbug) on the news programs.

One of these nuances I’ve already written about. This is the notion of INTENT as a requirement to determine if I law has been violated. You can read about INTENT using “lawyer logic” HERE.  This was the INSANE logic that Showboat Comey used to defend Hillybob’s innocence in the email scandal, even though she OBVIOUSLY committed multiple FELONIES.

The next interesting nuance in the law is that written plans prior to committing a crime is not evidence of premeditation. This is the argument that the defenders of Showboat Comey use to PROVE that his writing of the Hillybob exoneration memo prior to his interviewing of her is not evidence that he “prejudged” her innocence.  Using he “Comey-protection Logic” the defenders of Counselor Showboard argue that his writing of the memo is unconnected to his months later verdict of her innocence and therefore his testimony to Congress that he did not decide her innocence prior to the completion of all interviews, IS NOT PERJURY.  Yeah, right.

Let’s follow the logic.

If we follow this lawyerly “Comey-protection Logic“,  just because a murderer had at his home a hand written shopping list that included duct tape, rope, a tarp, a hammer, and a shovel, that written list DOES NOT DEMONSTRATE PREMEDITATION even IF a body is discovered wrapped in a tarp which was tied up with rope, hands and mouth duct taped, bludgeoned with a hammer, and buried in a shallow grave. According to “Comey-protection Logic“, a document written prior an act is not proof of any PREMEDITATION or PLANNING.  “Comey-protection Logic” says, premeditation of a crime cannot exist, which implies that there can almost never be a case for First Degree Murder, which requires PREMEDITATION. The only way to charge First Degree Murder is if the defendant confesses to premeditation of the murder! This according to the logic from “Real” LAWYERS.

A third interesting nuance that the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE is presenting is that IF a lawyer only has one client, he is not a lawyer.  The DOJ is applying to this arguments as to why they are “entitled” to all documents seized from President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.  IF Cohen only has ONE client (employed soley by Donald Trump as his personal attorney) he is NOT a lawyer.  They go on to argue that if he is NOT a lawyer then NO attorney-client privilege exists. Without attorney-client privilege the DOJ believes they can use ALL seized documents as they see fit.

Once more let’s follow the logic.

Think about how this applies to corporate lawyers.  They only have one client, their employer.  The DOJ “one employer, not a lawyer logic” means that the DOJ can willy-nilly seize any corporate attorney’s documents as NO corporate lawyer can ever be a “real” lawyer.  Applying the one-employer logic to those of us who are in the great unwashed, it means that if you have only one employer, you actually are not working at the job that you think you are getting paid for.  In all my working life, I’ve ONLY had ONE employer at a time, therefore I must not have ever worked a “real” job. I can conclude in over 45 years of employment, I’ve never worked a day in my life! Sheesh I feel like quite the slacker, now that the DOJ has shown me that having only one employer makes me a “non-real” worker.

And they say those in the millennial generation are slackers.

It looks as if you charge $700 per hour and wear $5000 suits, you can say with confidence anything you want, whether is makes LOGICAL SENSE or NOT.

Okay, now I’ll say it, “All of these LAWYERS are full of SHIT!

Birthday Surprise

I was on a rant the past few days.  So now for something a bit lighter.

I was sent a newsletter and one of the articles pointed out that today Barbie, the plastic doll, is 58 years old. There was a list in the article of all the occupations that Barbie has held in her lifetime. One of the occupations listed was ENGINEER.

WTF? Engineer? I didn’t know there was a “Engineer Barbie”. As an engineer, of course I had to look it up.

Barbie has been criticized as an unobtainable symbol of beauty for little girls. Desirability ISN’T one of the qualities normally associated with ENGINEERS. In fact,

What does an ENGINEER use for BIRTH CONTROL?

Personality

In 2010 Mattel released their first “Engineer Barbie”.  Here she is: 

Actually it was “Computer Programmer Barbie” though many were calling her an engineer.  We knuckle-dragging engineers don’t consider a programmer as an engineer.  The affectionate name we call them is “Code Monkey”.  There’s an old adage:

Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers

Last year Mattel released another “Engineer Barbie”. Here she is: 
And what does Barbie work on? Washing machines. I guess Mattel wanted to keep Barb close to her “Domestic Engineer” roots.  What caught my attention is what she’s holding in her hand.  Why she needs a biological lab microscope to build a washing machine, I have no idea.  Perhaps Mattel is just reinforcing her blondeness.